My son is going to graduate from college this spring. He goes to a film and media school for college, a decision that stemmed from so many factors: his love of Disney and Pixar from an extremely young age, our move to Northern California when he was small and we were faced with a bewildering array of digital tech camps for summertime enrichment; a high school that offered an innovative program in creative and visual arts; and his deep and enduring love of all movies and animation, a love shared by both of us.
He’s chosen to specialize in editing, which is a less popular option than, say, directing or producing, especially directing. Everyone fancies themselves as the next Spielberg or Nolan. (I wish I could name a female film director with as much cultural currency as those two names and no, don’t throw Greta Gerwig at me, Barbie was not all that.) Like many, many types of work, editing requires that one hold the creative vision and overall story in one’s head while also being able to zoom in and painstakingly refine tiny details while also being able to add one’s own judgment and creative input. When you watch a movie, the experience you have is largely attributed to the director, but people like screenwriters, editors, cinematographers, and sound designers are incredibly important contributors to shaping that experience.
The other day, my son was working on an editing project and when he finished, he felt so happy and satisfied. Please note that he was feeling this way before getting an ounce of feedback or a single indication of how well he executed the job. But I knew exactly why he was feeling that way. It’s because he a) felt like he had grasped the nature of the assignment and what he had to do; b) he had the requisite skills to complete the assignment and do it well; c) he really loved doing the assignment (the work itself); and d) he was finished with the assignment.
These feelings of work satisfaction also make me happy, right down to the tips of my toes. Although I find the writing to be occasionally wearisome and painful, when I finish assembling a piece and it reads as a coherent, meaningful story, it makes me happy. In fact, I think satisfaction is one of the very best feelings one can have about work in general, and I wonder why it feels so challenging for more people to achieve that feeling more often. I am not saying that someone should aim to feel satisfied all the time, in one’s work—that’s like expecting to feel happy all the time, or to be in perfect health all the time. Such are not the ways that humans exist (says the person who gets sick every January). But I do think that feeling that type of work satisfaction ought to be the experience of employees at least some of the time, and that if you’re not deriving that feeling of satisfaction from any part of your work, then perhaps you need to ask yourself some questions.
I wrote, eons ago, about knowing what one wants out of a job. I realized, re-reading that post, that the piece was really about knowing what one wants from a work environment, and working conditions. My top requirements when it comes to work environments always have to do with strong, compassionate, and skilled leadership and smart, funny colleagues to collaborate with. Please see that post for how I define those things (and feel free to laugh at me anew for how unrealistic you think these wishes are).
But the type of work satisfaction I am talking about now is when you find that sweet spot between the task you’ve been asked to do and the skills you have to do the task. Because once you find that sweet spot, you end up feeling like a competent, accomplished person. And competence makes one feel powerful. Not powerful in a world-dominating, oppressing kind of way (it is actually my theory that people who want THAT kind of power are actually suffering from huge amounts of narcissism and are endless black holes of hunger and insecurity)—but competence in the sense that you can execute tasks big and small, straightforward and ambiguous, with strategy and foresight, attention to detail, and a positive attitude.
(Aside: I had someone once ask me about someone else, and I said that that person was highly competent in her current role, and the questioner responded, “You know, I feel like you are using ‘competent’ as a put-down, when you could have said things like, ‘she’s brilliant, she’s innovative, etc.’” This was bewildering to me. In my opinion, it can be risky to describe someone with superlatives, because you end up over-valuing the sexy-sounding things, like brilliance and innovation, and under-valuing the non-sexy but highly important things, like attention to detail, work ethic, plays well with others, etc. And, you could be putting a lot of inadvertent pressure on that person to always, always be seen as performing at that level. A mentor once told me, when I was fretting about following in the footsteps of a boss who was described in superlatives, that I had every opportunity to succeed in a completely different way than my boss did, that was uniquely my own, and that is some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten, period.)
If you are not feeling that level of work satisfaction at any time, ever, in your work, then maybe, if you have the financial latitude and bandwidth to do so, you could do a little bit of a self-assessment and ask yourself questions like:
- What am I good at? What are my skills? I believe that one should inventory one’s skills every year or so, especially if you work in fields where multiple skills are called upon and put to use. I have a lot of skills related to communications and policy and philanthropy, for example, and over time, I’ve added to that inventory. But that doesn’t mean I want to be putting each and every one of my skills to use, nowadays. Which is why you should also ask:
- What skills bring me the most joy and satisfaction to deploy, under what circumstances? This is so important to think about because when you don’t, you can find yourself stuck in the wrong lane. For example, writing is undoubtedly one of my strongest skills—I can write almost anything (except a rom-com screenplay, but maybe that will still happen one day). I am good at writing case study-like pieces that synthesize a lot of data and perspectives from different people, but I am learning that I don’t necessarily enjoy doing a bunch of them all at once (This is the lane I got stuck in during 2023 and am working to change, in 2024). They take a ton of time, they don’t pay that well, and sometimes they send me down a very deep rabbit hole for very long periods of time. What I’ve learned is that I love to do writing in service of a collaborative process with an interesting and meaningful goal. For example, I’m great at writing summary reports and briefs and meeting agendas and materials when those things come with a good helping of great people, all working to problem-solve for the benefit of others. Overall, I’ve found that I like to do the type of writing that feels the least isolating to do.
- What types of organizations, fields, and sectors are looking for the types of skills I have and love to deploy? This is where I would encourage people to make their queries as far-ranging and out there as possible. My son, I think, is lucky he ended up wanting to specialize in editing. Even though he may never achieve riches or the stature of a big-name film director or producer, there are so many jobs, places, and industries that need editing skills, and he has so many places to look for the types of stories he wants to work on and help share with the world.
I realize that this piece may be more relevant for people in the earlier stages of their careers than for people who have been stuck in an unsatisfying work rut for pretty much their entire careers. While I am sympathetic to the latter group, at the same time, I recognize that there may be compensations. Sometimes people can make enough money, in jobs that they don’t love but don’t hate, that afford them the opportunity for satisfying pursuits outside of work. Sometimes work satisfaction will happen unexpectedly, much later in one’s career and life. Just: if you’re lucky enough to have found something you love doing that you also think you’re good at, I hope to goodness you are also able to enjoy that satisfaction. Because it’s a great feeling.
Minna Jung Consulting 